A challenge you will always face in telemarketing (and in fact, any form of marketing in general) is being careful with what you pitch. In financial planning services, one the biggest mistakes you can make is marketing bad advice.

If you need a reminder of how important it is to refrain from such bad telemarketing practices, you need only read this brief slideshow from Time Moneyland. The slideshow is a top ten list of financial advice that people shouldn’t follow. Here are just two excerpts from notable slides that can have clear applications when marketing B2B financial planning.

“Use a Debt-Settlement Company”

“Debt-settlement firms make an appealing pitch: Contract with us and we’ll chop your debts for you. Just funnel monthly payments to them instead of your creditors and they’ll battle the banks on your behalf, they promise.”

As you can see in the rest of the slide, this is a mistake and you need to avoid making similar lies. Honesty is the best policy and you do not want to attract your financial leads with false promises. Business owners (especially more experienced ones) are not likely to buy them anyways. And again, this doesn’t just apply to your telemarketing message. Check the rest of your marketing materials (website, direct mail letters, email templates etc.) and re-evaluate the message that you’re sending. Is it just as outlandish as the one mentioned in the slide? If it is, time to change it.

“Take Investment Advice from Friends”

“‘Any ‘investment’ a friend or family member recommends that could possibly earn the money back is likely way too risky to get involved in — and possibly not legal,’ says Cristy Cash, director of counseling at the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Central Oklahoma.”

Chances are, you may have already given the same advice to your clients! However, don’t think this just applies to financial planning. Turning this the other way around, you shouldn’t be too eager to encourage your own clients to pitch for you. The message can either get easily distorted or the word might just spread to more well-informed market influencers who will easily point out flaws that you’re still in the midst of eliminating. While it should be a call to keep improving, you should be wary about the negative impact such information will have on your market.

In either case, make sure your telemarketers don’t send the wrong message. You need to attract and convince prospects but it should never be at the expense of integrity. The loss of that integrity could only result in the following consequences:

Loss of Trust – Losing trust among your B2B customers has got to be one of the most painful experiences for any business. It’s what’s been driving their loyalty towards your services and confidence in your advice. Nothing is worth losing that.

Ill Reputation – Having a bad reputation in the market will divert its entire attention away from your business. And given the popularity of social media and the wealth of information on the internet, the effects of bad reputation can spread faster than you think (even in B2B).

Decline in Sales – With fewer market interest, there are fewer leads. With fewer leads, there are fewer sales. It’s not that complicated to understand why and how it could only get worse.

No good business would desire any of the three outcomes. Consider what message is being sent via marketing and be careful with what you pitch!

There are only two failures you will commit in cold-calling, either you do not make enough calls or you perform it horribly. To avoid employing the aforementioned defeats, it is necessary to follow some simple tips.

The commencement of the cold-calling process is to have a good list. You can not make a call without knowing whom he needs to call. This account must be accompanied with basic personal information. These pieces of data will ignite a dialogue between the telemarketer and the prospect. Sources of information include the Internet, newspapers, directories, databases and a company-generated list.

A key factor infinancial planning lead generation success is the state of mental preparedness You should put calendar, notes and script guide close to you. Truly helpful is the removal of distractions, i.e. mobile phones. Rehearsing and practicing a dialogue constantly sprouts self-esteem in order not to stutter during an actual call.

Rejections and objections are going to pour sometimes during cold calls. According to a study, only five percent (5%) of sales prospects are actively seeking solutions to their problems. Thirty-percent (30%) are either (1) conscious of their problem but don’t know how to solve them or (2) clueless of that they have concerns. The remaining thirty-five percent (35%) do not just care about a firm’s product and/or service. With these statistics, all are in agreement that rejection is an inherent attribute.

Only few telemarketers optimize their time to effectively plan the right time to call. Knowing how to warm-up a cold call builds relationship and rapport with your prospect. This is crucial in generating financial advisor leads. A telemarketer who initiates a call without a clear way on how to converse with the qualified financial adviser leads is talking about disaster.

Lastly, you must also motivate himself by setting goals and measure performance. With this self-evaluation, you will know what things are effective and which areas need improvement or corrective action.